The Southside

The section of Glasgow south of the Clyde is generally described as the Southside, though within this area there are a number of recognizable districts, including the notoriously deprived Gorbals and Govan, which are sprinkled with new developments but still derelict and tatty in many parts. There’s little reason to venture here unless you’re making your way to the Clydeside museums and the famously innovative Citizens’ Theatre. Further south, inner-city decay fades into altogether gentler and more salubrious suburbs, including Queen’s Park, home to Scotland’s national football stadium, Hampden Park, Pollokshaws and the rural landscape of Pollok Park, which contains one of Glasgow’s major museums, the Burrell Collection.

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The Burrell Collection

The outstanding Burrell Collection, the lifetime collection of shipping magnate Sir William Burrell (1861–1958), is, for some, the principal reason for visiting Glasgow. Sir William’s only real criterion for buying a piece was whether he liked it or not, enabling him to buy many unfashionable works that cost comparatively little but subsequently proved their worth.

The simplicity and clean lines of the Burrell building are superb, with large picture windows giving sweeping views over woodland and serving as a tranquil backdrop to the objects inside. An airy covered courtyard includes the Warwick Vase, a huge bowl containing fragments of a second-century AD vase from Emperor Hadrian’s villa in Tivoli. On three sides of the courtyard, a trio of dark and sombre panelled rooms have been re-erected in faithful detail from the Burrells’ Hutton Castle home, their tapestries, antique furniture and fireplaces displaying the same eclectic taste as the rest of the museum.

Elsewhere on the ground floor, Greek, Roman and earlier artefacts include an exquisite mosaic Roman cockerel from the first century BC and a 4000-year-old Mesopotamian lion’s head. Nearby, also illuminated by enormous windows, the excellent Oriental Art collection forms nearly a quarter of the whole display, ranging from Neolithic jades through bronze vessels and Tang funerary horses to cloisonné. Burrell considered his medieval and post-medieval European art, which encompasses silverware, glass, textiles and sculpture, to be the most valuable part of his collection: these are ranged across a maze of small galleries.

Upstairs, the cramped and comparatively gloomy mezzanine is probably the least satisfactory section of the gallery, not the best setting for its sparkling array of paintings by artists that include Degas, Manet, Cézanne and Boudin.

The old firm

Football, or fitba’ as it’s pronounced locally, is one of Glasgow’s great passions – and one of its great blights. While the city can claim to be one of Europe’s premier footballing centres, it’s known above all for one of the most bitter rivalries in any sport, that between Celtic and Rangers. Two of the largest clubs in Britain, with weekly crowds regularly topping 60,000, the Old Firm, as they’re collectively known, have dominated Scottish football for a century; in the last twenty years they’ve lavished vast sums of money on foreign talent in an often frantic effort both to outdo each other and to stay in touch with the standards of the top English and European teams.

The roots of Celtic, who play at Celtic Park in the eastern district of Parkhead, lie in the city’s immigrant Irish and Catholic population, while Rangers, based at Ibrox Park in Govan on the Southside, have traditionally drawn support from local Protestants: as a result, sporting rivalries have been enmeshed in a sectarian divide, and although Catholics do play for Rangers, and Protestants for Celtic, sections of supporters of both clubs seem intent on perpetuating the feud. While large-scale violence on the terraces and streets has not been seen for some time – thanks in large measure to canny policing – Old Firm matches often seethe with bitter passions, and sectarian-related assaults do still occur in parts of the city.

However, there is a less intense side to the game, found not just in the fun-loving “Tartan Army” which follows the (often rollercoaster) fortunes of the Scottish national team, but also in Glasgow’s smaller clubs, who actively distance themselves from the distasteful aspects of the Old Firm and plod along with home-grown talent in the lower reaches of the Scottish league. All important reminders that it is, after all, only a game.

Shopping in Glasgow

The main area for spending in the city centre is formed by the Z-shaped and mostly pedestrianized route of Argyle, Buchanan and Sauchiehall streets. Along the way you’ll find Princes Square, a stylish and imaginative shopping centre hollowed out of the innards of a soft sandstone building. The interior, all recherché Art Deco and ornate ironwork, holds lots of pricey, fashionable shops. Otherwise, make for the West End or the Merchant City, which have more eccentric and individual offerings. The latter is the place for secondhand and antiquarian bookshops as well as quirky vintage and one-off fashion stores on the lanes off Byres Road.